Gritting my teeth, I ripped open the box and pulled out the specially designed towelette. Opening the package, I ran the damp softness over every inch of Eleanor’s skin. She arched her neck as I ran it over her cleavage, still at the mercy of the final dregs of elixir.

My cock twitched in response, but the debilitation of my entire body meant a twitch was all I could manage.

Once she was free from the oil I’d spread over her at the start of the evening, I tossed the soiled towelette back in the box. That oil had allowed her to feel every touch tonight, to sense the heat of the fire, to revel in the softness of fur. Next, I pulled free the earplugs from her dainty ears that allowed a caveman to command her. Moving down her body, I removed the sensor pads on her fingertips that permitted her to feel the male who’d most likely fallen in love with her tonight.

All carefully designed tricks to turn an illusion into a reality.

“Her eyes,” Cal muttered, standing close with his arms crossed. “Want me to get them? You’re not exactly…stable right now.”

I waved him away, and as gently as I could, with quaking hands and a body that wouldn’t stop swaying to do such delicate tasks, I pried open her left and then her right eye, freeing the contact lenses that’d made her see a cave instead of my islands—allowed her to see a man she’d never met before, to fully exist in the deception of Euphoria.

The second the contact lenses fell into the box, Cal scooped it up, shut the lid with a crack, then marched toward the exit.

I trailed after him, glancing one last time at Eleanor.

She looked so vulnerable lying in the dark. So defenceless all alone. Where had she been stolen from? That boyfriend she mentioned…was he looking for her? Or had he given up already?

Goddammit.

Turning around with a groan, I stumbled back to the bed and pulled the white blanket over her nakedness. The night sky still held humidity and heat, but the instant the comforting weight fell over her, she sighed and curled onto her side. Her hair lay strewn over her pillow, inviting me to touch it.

I’d become obsessed with her hair. I didn’t know if it was the length or the colour that appealed to me, or the fact that I could control her with a single fist in the strands—either way, it was a fucking struggle to back away.

The gauzy curtains by the open doors fluttered with soft sea breeze. The scents of dense foliage and rich undergrowth ripe thanks to a tropical rainfall that’d passed through earlier.

My eyelids drooped again; black feathered over my mind.

“Sinclair.”

Cal’s snap wrenched me back into purpose. All I wanted to do was sleep, but I couldn’t, not until I was safe in my own bed.

Trudging toward the exit, I didn’t look back at the goddess who’d caused so many problems. I knew my exhaustion was due to my melancholy thoughts. My fatigue the reason I had no power over the weakness creeping through my heart, but it didn’t mean I was okay with the fact that I felt something toward that girl.

Something I was powerless to stop.

Cal closed the door behind us as I swayed on the sandy laneway, looking up through palm trees to the vast cosmos above. Stars twinkled, winking with secrets, fully aware of my sins.

His hand pushed between my shoulder blades, and for the first time, I noticed I had no shirt on. My board-shorts were the only thing keeping me decent.

“I’ll walk you to your villa,” he said quietly, nudging me forward until I lumbered down the path. “The other goddesses shouldn’t see you like this.”

I nodded. He was right. No way did I want them to witness their tyrannical ruler wobbly and weak. I wouldn’t prove to them that I wasn’t a god after all but pure mortal. A mortal with wounds and worries and the god-awful premonition that I’d fucked up big time.

I shouldn’t have put her in Euphoria.

We walked in silence for a bit, allowing the buzzing cicadas to serenade us and the ribbits of tree frogs to fill in vacant conversation. Trailing down the pathway leading toward Nirvana, the waterfall I regularly rock climbed, Cal finally broke the insect-amphibian orchestra. “Why did you do it, Sinclair?”

I shrugged.

I doubted he’d like answers like: ‘I couldn’t help myself.’ ‘She’s different.’ ‘She’s messing with my mind.’

“Next time, I’ll prepare and finish her. You don’t need to be around Jinx any more than absolutely necessary.”

My hands balled.

“All you need to do is focus on your guests, your lab, and the coding for fantasies, remember?” His green eyes flashed with light from the carved lanterns leading the way. “You did ask me, once upon a time, to remind you of what was important if you ever deviated.”

Previously, I would’ve agreed with him. Those three things did keep me plenty busy without self-destructing thanks to a fascination with a goddess.

But…that was before.

Before her.

I strode ahead.

The lights of my villa beckoned me, granting the final dregs of movement. “I remember, Cal. And I also remember being the fucking boss around here.”

He stopped, allowing me to continue on my own. However, his voice chased me over the sand. “At least she didn’t die tonight, Sinclair. The elixir didn’t push her over the edge.”

“It wouldn’t have mattered if she had,” I threw over my shoulder, wanting an end to whatever suspicions he had about me.

“Yeah, sure.” His dark laughter echoed in my ears as I trudged up the two shallow steps and wrenched open my villa door. I could still feel his judgement long after I slammed the door, locked it, and planted face first on my bed.

I was out cold a heartbeat later.

Chapter Two

Five Hours Before

ELIXIR.

My horror and haven.

Suffering orgasms at my own hand while under its influence had been the most painful and shameful experience of my life.

Until now.

I screamed as the caveman mounted and speared inside me.

One thrust.

One swift stab of his hot, hard cock…and I shattered.

My first orgasm snatched me with no warning or politeness. My body skipped past previous cues that hinted a climax was imminent.

He entered me.

And I existed no more.

Undiluted, chemically-supercharged bliss shot me from my body and sent me soaring in delirium. I wasn’t aware of anything apart from my body splitting apart, wave after wave, squeezing and milking the carnal intrusion inside me.

It went on forever, stealing all my energy until I blinked with blind eyes, doing my best to breathe and slip back into my skin that felt too hot, too sensitive, too much.

As quickly as the catapulting of my soul happened, I ricocheted back into my body and collapsed. My elbows gave out, crumpling me to the floor with my cheek pressed into musty dirt.

I didn’t care.

All I cared about was the drum, drum of my frenzied heart and the lava of lust in my veins.

I wanted to rest, to fade away into the stars where I’d just visited. However, my cheek rubbed rhythmically into the earth. My breasts swayed. And my hips remained high in the sky while the stranger rutted into me like a beast.

Blinking, I glanced over my shoulder. I willed strength to push up but my muscles were totally useless. His eyes glowed with a hunger that tore apart my stomach and hollowed me out. His eyebrows shadowed everything but raw desire while his teeth stabbed into his bottom lip as he fucked me with unwavering obsession.